Friday, July 30, 2010 

I think I have the solution to the illegal immigration problem, the unemployment problem and our national security issue along our borders. Ultimately we need a wall along the border of Mexico. It should be a militarized wall to protect our sovereign interests and to keep out drugs and any potential invaders. When we had the “Great Depression” our government stepped up and put people to work. They built schools and various public buildings all across the country. Instead of more stimulus packages the government should utilize this again and build what we need. We need a symbol to get behind to protect our citizens and way of life. We need a wall. The Great Wall of North America Project would protect us from invasion. It would provide jobs in an extremely poor economy and it would provide a deterrent to those who wish to take advantage of our wealth of human services we offer to our legal citizens. The wall should not just be a steel fence that could be cut through in the middle of the night. It should be a 2000 mile long high tech defense facility run by our military. It should be at the very least a highly fortified thick walled line of defense that utilizes all the technology our country uses on a daily basis. It should include multiple monitoring stations with guard towers along its entire length. Current military bases near the wall could be moved to integrate with the wall at certain points to be ready to defend our country, train troops and maintain the wall. This level of a project would require a multitude of hard working Americans to design, engineer, and build. With the level of the unemployed in today’s economy it should not be difficult to get all the skilled labor that is required. Of course the Army Corp of Engineers being the great builders that they are they could design the military aspects of the wall to maximize defense. I would expect high tech computer systems, satellite tracking and monitoring; plenty of protective hardware would be utilized. As far as our illegal alien issue there are a lot of hard working people illegally coming across the border. So we start enforcing the FEDERAL laws that make it illegal to cross the border. When caught illegal aliens will be arrested and receive up to a 1 year prison sentence for illegally crossing the border. Utilizing the tent prison design that Sheriff Arpaio of Arizona uses those illegal aliens can provide hard labor to assist in building the wall. This would cut down on some of the labor cost of building the wall. As labor needs rise and fall some detainees can be returned to Mexico early if needed. The “tent prison” can be moved along as needed while the wall is built. Once their year is up send them home with a little money in their pocket and perhaps a “move to the front of the line card” to immigrate if they wish. This serves as a message to the citizens of Mexico and other Central American countries the “free lunch” is over. These policies alone may stem the tide of illegal crossings.

Of course a more stringent enforcement policy needs to be followed here. We can implement a program to allow current illegal aliens within the borders already to step forward and volunteer to help with the wall. They could be offered a legal opportunity to eventually become a citizen. Give them the same 1 year period to provide restitution for their illegal presence and then wipe the slate clean for them on that offense. Make it mandatory they learn English while building the wall and at the end of the year there will be well trained English speaking folks used to living in America that will want to be productive citizens. Those that complete their time helping to enforce the laws they broke could be returned to their family’s here in the states and may be ready to take the required test to become a citizen. Once The Great Wall of North America is complete then the job of protecting the border truly begins. As far as guarding the wall some previously unemployed Americans can continue to work there as guards, surveillance/camera techs, computer operators, dispatchers and military personnel. It will end up being a testament to American ingenuity and with its size will be seen from space just as the Great Wall of China is. The job of protecting ourselves is a large one. To date the federal government has not enforced our borders well enough. This project would give our citizens a stronger sense of security. It would provide extremely needed jobs and give a boost to our economy. It would also calm the fears and unrest that the many illegal aliens generate that cross in and out of our country daily.

I beg you to listen and consider this plan. Write your Congressmen.

A Concerned American